We have mail: business rates relief for public toilets... and an endorsement!

Hi Jan

Having been involved, as Director of BTA and owner of Loo of the Year Awards, giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee in 2008 demanding changes that would require the Government to make a legal requirement on local authorities to provide adequate public toilets, I welcome the budget changes.

This should be an incentive for local authorities to spend the saving in business rates on public toilets improving their provision where required.

I still passionately believe that all local authorities should have a legal requirement to provide adequate public toilets with facilities for all types of users not just healthy males and females but babies, children, those that need accessible facilities and the more severely handicapped that desperately require more Changing Places toilets.

Responsible local authorities entered 305 public toilets in the 2018 Loo of the Year Awards and of these 93% achieved a well-earned Platinum or Gold Award. They will receive the satisfaction of a job well done and an independent recognition for their efforts.

Thanks for the Loo of the Year Awards news item in last week's issue.

I was also very interested in the Dolphin Solutions item. The company is sponsoring Loo of the Year Awards for the third year in 2018 and I can vouch for the superb location, facility and family-run staff at the Bodiam head office and production facility. The management and staff are extremely professional, innovative and produce some superb products. More importantly they are sincere - a quality sadly missing in many companies in 2018.